Little Sister
by Nutmeg Lee
Summary: Kelsi was the basketball team's little sister, and they just wanted to look out for her like big brothers should. Even when an Evans was involved. Especially when an Evans was involved. Oneshot. Trelsi, Chelsi, Zelsi, Jelsi friendships. Ryelsi.


_Troy, Chad, Zeke, and Jason always found it necessary to watch over Kelsi. Even when an Evans was involved. Especially when an Evans was involved._

_ I really just adore the thought of those four being all over-protective of Kelsi. She's the basketball team's little sister! :)_

_I still don't own High School Musical._

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><p>Kelsi was the basketball team's little sister. More specifically, she was Troy, Chad, Zeke, and Jason's little sister. And all they wanted to do was look after her.<p>

It was after their first run-through of "Just Wanna Be With You." Everyone simply adored Kelsi's latest masterpiece, but the Wildcats were more interested in the way the composer and the choreographer were acting. To most of the cast and crew, the fact that Ryan was sitting with Kelsi right until they began rehearsing wouldn't have been so odd. But if they were the Wildcats, they would have noticed them smiling, laughing, blushing, and occasionally bumping each other's shoulders. The fact that Ryan kept on stealing glances at Kelsi during the beginning of the song wouldn't have meant a thing to everyone else there. But the Wildcats saw that Ryan wasn't just looking at her; he was really _looking_ at her. "I believe that actor is _you_, Mr. Choreographer." To most people, this would just sound like an innocent statement between friends. But the Wildcats knew better. That wasn't just light banter, oh no. That was Kelsi's own way of flirting. And that fact had been the last straw for the Wildcats.

"Okay, let's take five, and run it again!"

Troy quickly sought out Chad, Zeke, and Jason so they could discuss this new... development between their little sister and the male Evans twin.

"Did you guys notice Kelsi and Ryan during that song?" Troy asked.

"Oh, thank _goodness_ I wasn't the only one who saw!" Chad had managed to get that ridiculous clown costume off.

Zeke crossed his arms. "Did we miss something in the past few days?"

Jason furrowed his eyebrows. "Miss what?" The other three just stared at him until it clicked. "Oh! Kelsi and Ryan! Yeah, what was up with that? Are they, like... together?"

The basketball boys looked over towards Kelsi at the piano. Ryan (unsurprisingly) was also there, but what they were surprised to see was-

"They're holding hands!" Jason pointed out.

The guys looked back at each other, worry written on each of their faces.

"So," Chad started, "Small Person or Evans?"

* * *

><p>"Hey, Playmaker, can we talk to you?"<p>

Kelsi looked up from the piano in the music room to see Troy, Chad, Zeke, and Jason. She smiled. "Of course, grab a chair, they're all over the place."

After they got situated, she asked, "So, to what do I owe pleasure of this visit?"

Troy looked at the others before starting. "We just wanted to talk to you about Ryan. Did he, by any chance, ask you out or something? Prom, maybe?"

Kelsi held back the urge to roll her eyes. She knew this would be coming sooner or later. She was just hoping it would be later. Much later. "Yes, I'm going to prom with Ryan. And if you're worried about him hurting me, you shouldn't. He's a nice guy."

"Yeah," Chad said, "but he hasn't exactly been very nice to you in the past, Kels."

Kelsi definitely didn't need a reminder of that. She still held that awful rendition of "What I've Been Looking For" against him. She sighed. "He's different now, guys. He's changed, and I know all of you know that, too. Or do you already need to be reminded of last summer at Lava Springs?" She eyed Troy and Chad especially.

Seeing Chad and Troy uncomfortable, Zeke decided it was his turn to talk. "We're not saying he has bad intentions, Kels. We're just looking out for you."

"Yeah," Jason nodded. "We only want what's best for you. I mean, Ryan's a cool guy and all, but-"

"But you're our little sister, Kelsi," Troy said gently, "and the way we see it, no guy will ever be good enough for you."

Kelsi's gaze softened as she looked at the four boys in front of her, their eyes full of love and concern. What did she do to deserve four wonderful, caring frie-no, brothers-big brothers in her life? She smiled. "And I appreciate your concern. I really, truly do. But please just trust me on this one, okay? Ryan is a good guy. And I know he would never intentionally try to hurt me. He's not like that." She carefully studied each of their faces as they took this in.

Troy smiled. "Alright, Kels. Whatever you say."

"But just so you know, if he ever does," Chad flexed his arms and Kelsi couldn't help but laugh.

"I get it, I get it. No one's gonna be very happy. Now get up because I wanna give my big brothers a hug."

* * *

><p>Kelsi said to trust her. They did. She also said not to worry. That, they couldn't control. However, she never said they couldn't go and talk with Mr. Ryan Evans. And that's exactly what they were going to do. They found him (again, unsurprisingly) by himself in the theater. He was pacing on the stage, looking like he was debating with himself under his breath.<p>

"I need to tell her. But what if she hates me after it? She needs to know the truth, even though I'm not really doing this for Shar-"

"Hey, Evans!" Chad called. Ryan immediately turned around. His eyes widened at the sight of the four basketball players heading towards him. "Mind if we have a little chat?"

Troy nudged him. "Cool it, man," he whispered. "It's not like he _did _hurt, Kelsi."

Ryan jumped off the stage, meeting them at the front of the aisle. "Uh, yeah. What do you wanna talk about?"

"Kelsi," they all said at once.

Fear flashed on Ryan's face, but he quickly composed himself. He cleared his throat. "Sure, what about Kelsi?"

Jason folded his arms. "We're just letting you know that if you hurt her in any way-"

"-whether it be intentional or not-" Zeke interjected.

"-you'll have to answer to us," ended Chad.

Troy could see that Ryan was trying to hide his fear, and sighed. "Look," he said softly, "Kelsi's not as strong as the other girls. We're just telling you to be careful, because the smallest thing could tear her up. She's put a lot of her trust in you, so if you're-and I'm not saying you are-_if _asking her to prom has anything to do with, I don't know, some crazy scheme your sister came up with, then you better let her down now before she finds out on her own."

Troy thought he saw guilt on Ryan's face as he said this, and he narrowed his eyes. "You _didn't _ask her because Sharpay told you to, right?"

Ryan looked at the four basketball players (_big_ basketball players, he mentally added) eyeing him down. He hung his head and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Look, before you say or do anything, just listen to me," he took in a deep breath. "Yes, Sharpay told me to ask Kelsi to prom so I could get her Troy and Gabriella's duet. _But_-" He looked up and nearly flinched. Troy, Chad, Zeke, and Jason each had fury in their eyes and their hands balled into fists. But that's not what bothered him. Looking past the "big brothers," he saw Kelsi's tear-stained face half-way down the aisle. "Kels..."

Suddenly, Troy, Chad, Zeke, and Jason's anger dissipated as they turned around.

Ryan stepped past them. "Kelsi, I-"

"I came down here," Kelsi cut him off, "to tell you that Troy, Chad, Jason, and Zeke were gonna talk to you about not hurting me, and how they were gonna go all crazy, over-protective big brother on you." She sniffled as another tear fell. "And then I was gonna say how I know I don't need to worry about you hurting me because I know you wouldn't, because you really do care about me, no matter what anyone says. And then I was gonna confess to you to how I can't believe that _you _asked _me_ to prom, because you actually like _me_." Kelsi took in a shaky breath. "And, hey!" she chuckled mirthlessly. "Looks like I was right, huh?"

"Kels, please-"

"I'll see you guys at rehearsal tomorrow." She quickly fled the theater, Ryan watching her go hopelessly.

He suddenly felt himself being forcefully turned around. Chad grabbed onto the front of his shirt. "Go. Fix her. _Now_," he threatened, and shoved Ryan backwards. Ryan could see the anger that was coursing through each of them, and ran after the broken composer without another word.

Once he was gone, Chad kicked one of the seats. "I _knew _this would happen!"

"I dunno," Jason said slowly. "Something doesn't seem right."

Troy looked at him incredulously. "What are you talking about, Jason? Did you see Kelsi? Did you not hear what he told us about asking her to prom? He's only doing it to get Sharpay that song!"

"Oh, no, I heard that," Jason replied, "and trust me. I wanna beat the crap out of him just for mentioning it. But did you guys see his face when he saw Kels?"

Troy, Chad, and Zeke looked at each other before shaking their heads no at him.

"Well, from what I saw, that wasn't the face of an Evans plan gone wrong."

"Then what was it?" Troy asked dryly.

Jason looked directly at him. "It was the same face _you _had when Gabriella broke up with you over the summer."

Troy's face instantly fell.

"So, what?" Zeke asked. "We just let it go?"

"No," Jason said, "I'm just saying before we really _do _do something," he looked pointedly at Chad, who suddenly became interested in his shoes, "we wait to hear what Kelsi has to say."

Troy chuckled. "You know, man," he put his hand on Jason's shoulder, "some people may not think you're the brightest, but you really do say some of the smartest things."

"Thanks!" Jason smiled. "I think..."

* * *

><p>At free period rehearsals the next day, Kelsi and Ryan walked into the theater hand-in-hand, which didn't go unnoticed by the Wildcats. The four of them met the couple at the piano.<p>

"Go ahead and do your worst," Ryan said. "I deserve it."

"_No_, you definitely do _not_, deserve the worst," Kelsi interjected, "but you do owe them an explanation."

Ryan smiled at Kelsi, then looked back at Troy, Chad, Zeke, and Jason who were watching him expectantly. "As I said yesterday, yes, Sharpay told me to ask Kelsi to prom just so she could get the duet; however," he gently squeezed Kelsi's hand, and she smiled at him, "I told her no. I said if I was going to ask Kelsi to prom, it would be because _I_ want to. Because I like her," he looked at Kelsi again, "a lot."

Kelsi blushed a little bit and turned towards the basketball boys. "And if you look at Sharpay, you'll see he isn't lying."

When they looked on the stage, indeed, they could see that Sharpay was glaring at them.

Zeke turned back to the couple in front of them and looked at Kelsi. "So you're okay?"

"Yup."

"And you forgave him," Jason said.

"Correct."

"And you did not ask Kelsi to prom just so Sharpay could get that song," Troy repeated towards Ryan.

"No, I did not."

Chad crossed his arms. "How can we be sure?"

"Look at it this way," Ryan said. "Why would I want to steal a song that I helped write?"

"Speaking of which," Kelsi said before any of them could reply, "we need to run through. Ryan wrote a bridge to 'Just Wanna Be With You' and it's fantastic."

Kelsi and Ryan smiled at each other before calling Troy and Gabriella to the piano. Chad, Zeke, and Jason stood a little bit away from them. "So," Jason began, "what do you think?"

"Personally, I think we have nothing to worry about," Zeke said.

Chad remained apprehensive. "Well, I'm still keeping my guard up."

Just then two voices started belting from the piano, neither of which were Troy or Gabriella. Ryan and Kelsi seemed to be lost in their own little world singing to each other.

"_The sun will always shine. That's how you make me feel. We're gonna be alright 'cause what we have is real. And we will always be together._"

Kelsi seemed giddy when she stopped playing. "And then you sing the chorus again two more times, after that, everyone else singing back-up will be singing something else, and you two just ad-lib for the rest of the song. Well, except for the very last line, but yeah. Sound good?"

Chad looked at Ryan. "You wrote that?"

Ryan turned around, then glanced nervously at Kelsi, who was looking between the two warily. "Uhm. Yeah."

After studying him for a moment, Chad smiled and patted him on the back. "Way to fix things, bro."

Ryan breathed a sigh of relief. "So, are we all cool again?" he asked looking at the four guys.

Troy nodded, smiling. "Yeah, we're cool."

"Just don't ever pull one of those _again_," Chad said.

"Trust me. I don't plan on doing anything like that to her ever." All four boys knew he was being sincere and nodded in approval.

Gabriella tapped Troy on the shoulder as Chad returned to Zeke and Jason. "Uhm, what was that? Did something happen yesterday?"

As Troy looked at Kelsi and Ryan sitting on the piano bench, their fingers intertwined, he smiled and shook his head. "Just looking after our little sister as always."

Gabriella giggled. "You know, Wildcat, one of these days Kelsi's not gonna need four big basketball boys to watch over her. She'll have a special someone to do that instead."

"Yeah, I know," Troy said looking back at the composer and the choreographer, "but big brothers need to make sure that that special, dancing, hat-wearing someone really is special."

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><p><em>I hope you liked it! :) Review, please?<em>


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